Tire pressure control systems are used to control the tire pressure in vehicles to adapt to different driving conditions, such as different speeds, different vehicle loads, different road conditions or terrain, etc. or to reduce tire wear and increase fuel efficiency. For example, a lower tire pressure increases the surface area between the tire and the ground, which can improve traction and distribute weight on the ground surface, while a higher tire pressure may be used to reduce wear and increase fuel efficiency. Tire pressure control systems may also be used to maintain a desired tire pressure resulting from on slow leaks or changes in temperature.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,744,679 (Boss et al.) entitled “Tire pressure adjustment” describes a system in which the tire pressure is controlled by a computer controller in response to data received from sensors. U.S. Pat. No. 6,144,295 (Adams et al.) entitled “Automatic central tire inflation system” describes another tire pressure control system that can be used to automatically or manually control the pressure in the tires of a work vehicle.
Another example of a tire pressure control system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,566 (Kalavitz et al.) entitled “Pressure control system”, and describes a system that is similar to the commercially available tire pressure control system offered by Tire Pressure Control International Ltd., referred to as the TIREBOSS™ system. The TIREBOSS system uses a small air tank with an orifice sized to simulate the dynamics of the vehicle tires (referred to as a “static tank”). During pressure change operations, the system measures the pressure in the static tank, which acts as a proxy for the pressure in the tires. This provides a working approximation of the tire pressure until the system comes to equilibrium and the actual tire pressure can be measured. This makes the pressure control task trivial and relatively foolproof. However, the “static tank” adds cost and size to the system.